President Trump lashed out against allegations that his path to the Oval Office was smoothed by a foreign power as his new chief of staff set about stamping discipline on a West Wing buffeted by crises.
At a raucous rally in West Virginia, Mr Trump railed against the news that a grand jury had been assembled in Washington to weigh evidence in deciding whether his campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
“Most people know there were no Russians in our campaign, there never were,” he told the crowd. “We didn’t win because of Russia, we won because of you!”
Suggestions to the contrary were “a total fabrication”, he said. “It’s just an excuse for the greatest loss in the history of American politics”.
The remarks capped another tumultuous week in Washington, in which:
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•Republican senators manoeuvred to prevent Mr Trump from sacking Robert Mueller, special counsel in the Russia investigation, or Jeff Sessions, the attorney-general.
•The special counsel investigation homed in on the ties associates of Mr Trump had with Russia.
•It emerged that a congressional investigation sent two staff to London to make contact with Christopher Steele, a British former spy who compiled an unverified dossier of salacious allegations tying Mr Trump to Russia.
The West Wing has lurched between crises for six months under a mercurial president who speaks and tweets to world leaders with the shoot-from-the-lip abandon that made him a reality TV star.
Mr Trump got a boost on Thursday night when Jim Justice, the governor of West Virginia and a billionaire coal and property tycoon, announced that he was defecting from the Democrats.
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Mr Justice, who returned to the Republican fold after two years as a Democrat, said of Mr Trump: “He’s got a backbone. He’s got real ideas. He cares about America.”
Republicans now control 34 state governorships, matching a record high set in 1922.
In the White House, however, morale is low. Mr Trump’s legislative agenda has stalled and this week Congress forced him to impose a new sanctions package on Russia that included a stinging restriction on his power to negotiate with the Kremlin.
The Senate agreed to bar Mr Trump from installing officials during its summer recess, preventing him from placing the Russia investigation under new oversight by replacing Mr Sessions.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, led a separate effort to pass a law to prevent Mr Trump from firing Mr Mueller without permission from a court.
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Mr Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general who was appointed chief of staff at the end of last month, moved to impose discipline on a White House that he had privately criticised as reckless and shambolic.
The door of the Oval Office is now closed, a symbol of Mr Kelly’s determination to police face time with Mr Trump. Even Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, is said to have agreed to go through Mr Kelly to reach her father on official business.
Mr Kelly appears to have inserted himself as a kind of presidential chaperone. Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said: “I’ve been on phone conversations with the president over the last couple of days and General Kelly has been on those conversations as well.”
Mr Kelly also moved to shore up the standing of HR McMaster, the three-star general who serves as national security adviser. He and Mr Trump have not clicked personally, and General McMaster’s proposal to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan have met heavy resistance from Steve Bannon, the president’s chief strategist.
There were rumours this week that General McMaster could be shipped to Kabul to oversee the 16-year war that is locked in a stalemate.
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On Thursday, however, Mr Kelly backed General McMaster’s decision to remove a White House intelligence aide. Ezra Cohen-Watnick was close to Mr Bannon and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. They shielded him from being fired this year by taking the matter directly to Mr Trump.
Mr Kelly told White House workers this week that he had been hired “to manage the staff, not the president”.
His relationship with Mr Trump will be key, however. In his previous role leading the sprawling Department of Homeland Security, Mr Kelly fumed over the chaotic implementation of Mr Trump’s first travel ban on immigrants from several mostly Muslim countries.
In front of the cameras he played the loyal soldier, appearing to back the principle of the policy. Behind the scenes, however, officials say that he seethed at what he saw as unforgivable incompetence.
In April, he gave a glimpse of his blunt style when his workforce at Homeland Security was criticised by members of Congress for enforcing immigration laws.
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“If lawmakers do not like the laws they’ve passed and we are charged to enforce, then they should have the courage and skill to change the laws,” he said. “Otherwise they should shut up.”
In May, he considered resigning when Mr Trump fired James Comey, the FBI director.
Leon Panetta, who made Mr Kelly his chief military aide when he was defence secretary, told The New York Times that he had advised the new chief of staff to buy a “big bottle of Scotch” when he agreed to take the role.
“John is the kind of guy who will look you in the eye and tell you what the hell he is thinking,” Mr Panetta added. “The real question is whether the president will give him the authority he needs to do the job.”
